


Fade

by Eva_Slayer



Series: Fade [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-13
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 01:31:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8558011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eva_Slayer/pseuds/Eva_Slayer
Summary: On the eve of the year 2015, America is rocked by the mass shooting of a school near Houston, Texas. One of the students at this said school, John Kurt, was kidnapped and presumed dead at the hands of the gunmen. A year later, a vigilante by the name of Fade has made his first appearance in the city of Houston, rapidly disposing of gangs and militant terrorist. 2 months after this, gangs and terrorist around the world are trembling in fear of the rumored Fade Coalition. Now he focuses his attention on corrupt governments. This is the story of the man behind Fade.





	1. Blaring News

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story I've been working on for about 3 months now and this is my first publication I'm having for it. It's an alternate reality story using elements from real events in the world today. For example, the shooting at Sandy Hook never happens, and is replaced by the "shooting" in this story. So expect some events to be played out differently or the same as in real life. And I know the first chapter isn't very long, but it will get a LOT longer.

September 25, 2016

"In the news today, it is the 1 year anniversary of the school shooting that took place in Houston, Texas. 28 students were killed, and another 30 were wounded in this attack. And still after a year, many are still calling for increased gun control, even though the weapons used in this shooting was in fact already illegal, and the shooters who did so were a part of a worldwide coalition of gangs that operate far outside the law. Many people seized upon this moment for political gain, particularly Democrats in the government. Barack Obama's speech on this anniversary even oozes out only political concern for this mass killing. In his speech he states "We need more complex gun laws to keep these types of things from happening." But what he does not realize is that the U.S has had a decreasing number of mass shootings since the 1960's, and most of the gun laws in the U.S. and other countries have been ineffective at stopping mass shootings or killings." 

Fade shut the television off, feeling tired out watching all of the press that was being put out on the shooting. 'It was a fucking year ago, get over it.' He grabbed his Sig Sauger P226 from his holster and walked out of the room. It was time to reveal himself. He looked back and shut the door. It was time for Fade to appear.

John Kurt 

Age: 18 (16 at time of presumed death) 

Status: Missing, presumed dead 

Affiliation: Unknown 

Bio: John Kurt was an orphan attending the Baytown High School at the time of the Baytown Shooting. Not much is known of his past, except that his deceased parents were anarchist who were killed when he was 3. He had a hard time adjusting to regular life, often getting into major argument with students and teachers over politics, most of the time putting down arguments for anarchy and communism by the time he was in 5th grade. He was a social outcast until he met and befriended fellow student Ellen Sigourney. Afterwards he became a big name within the school and became more of a calmer personality. He was an avid fan of all types of history and was on his way to going to college as a historian when the Baytown Shooting happened. He saved his friends at the cost of his own freedom, going so far as to claim he had intel on an underground character on "Fade" that the shooters supposedly came there to deal with. Some think he was serious, but to others they thought he was bluffing. Nevertheless, it was an act of self-sacrifice than many in the United States have come to admire.


	2. The Most Feared Mercenary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fade's legend has grown with each victory. Now, most to all criminal organizations in the United States fear his name. But as the underground deals with their fear, Fade has personal business to attend to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of the chapters from here on out will be from what I've actually written as a story so far, so there will be lots of updates for this in the future.

Chapter 1: The Thing That Should Not Be  
May 25, 2017  
Baytown, Texas

I picked up my purse and walked to the door, getting ready to leave. I didn’t really want to leave, but I had to. It was important. It was the day of my grandmother’s funeral. 

The past couple of years had been particularly stressing for me and my friends in my small school outside of Houston. Two years ago, a bunch of armed gunman stormed the school, looking for some guy called “Fade”. For those who did not know (almost nobody even heard about this person before) were killed swiftly, and those who were suspected to have info on him or her (probably a guy) were taken at gunpoint. Not a lot of the people taken or shot that day were seen for at least 2 months, before their bodies were found in the muddy puddles of our town. Most of those taken I had known for a long time, since Junior High. The final death toll was about 30 kids, all of them in High School. The only one that wasn’t accounted for was John Kurt. I had known him for a while, but I really considered him the goofball of our little group me and my friends were in- wait, had been in… He was probably long dead by now. He saved me as well. Pushed me and some others out of the way, and told them he actually had info on him. I laughed at that thought. He was probably the one person in the school who knew him. A major conspiracy theorist he was. Hated Barack Obama with a passion too. Rest in peace, John. 

I opened the door to my house and walked outside, walking towards my car. As I sat down in the driver’s side of my car, I took my .22 Ruger revolver and wrapped it around my skinny ankle in its holster. Ever since that day, everyone in town wasn’t taking chances with another shooter coming in and killing people. I was going to turn 18 in a month, but no one in Baytown cared if you were underage and had a piece on you. I closed my car door and started it, the hum of the engines greeting the turn of the key. I put it in drive and drove to the funeral grounds, expecting it to be a long, sad, tiring day. 

“Fade” camped out in a tree about 400 meters from the funeral grounds. Today was the funeral for the grandmother of Ellen Sigourney, someone his friend John Kurt knew and admired. Fade felt he owed John enough to watch over the last of his friends. The entire shooting at the school was his fault. John was captured because of it, and most of his friends were killed. He didn’t want to let him down in death. Fade shouldered his M21 rifle, keeping an eye on the burial grounds. Considering that the death of her grandmother would be broadcasted on the local news and written in the newspapers, Baytown’s underground element could be looking for a potential victim. But most of all Fade was afraid the gunmen that shot up the school would come back to take her out. It was a long shot, but he was a conspiracy theorist. He just had to make sure. Fade could hear the funeral convoy nearing the burial grounds. 

‘Time for silence now,’ he muttered. Fade pulled up his mask and watched them drive towards him. There were about 10 to 15 cars on the road. Fade looked at each individual car, trying to pinpoint anything suspicious. 

“Michael, I’m sending you a camera feed now. Can you see anything suspicious about the cars?” Fade activated the camera on his mask. 

“Darkness isn’t picking anything up. Wait, hold on.” There was a pause. “The black car in the back, Darkness is showing residue of toxins in there.” 

“Good catch. See if you can ID the driver.” 

“Damnit, window tint is too dark. Camera isn’t strong enough to recognize him. Gonna have to wait until he gets out of the car.” 

“Shit.” Fade looked at the car through his scope. It was a black 2007 Chevy Impala, with really dark window tint. Kind of thing a criminal would use for some bad things. The car was right behind Ellen’s car, a silver Kia Sorrento. 

“Hmm. Michael try to ID the car’s plates. It may give us a clue to his identity.” 

“Roger. Working…” There was a few seconds of silence then a reply. “According to the registration this belongs to Travis Sawyer, aka Carlos.” 

“You mean the asshole Carlos that shot up the school?” 

“Yeah, that douchebag.” 

“Son of a bitch, I was right. She was connected to John, they’re tying up loose ends.” 

“Should we call the police?” 

“No. Fade is still wanted by the police. We have to take care of this ourselves.” 

“With all due respect man, I think you shouldn’t be doing this all your own. Your just one man. If you were Batman that would be a lot different but still, even he had backup.” 

“It’s been two year of fighting criminals and corrupt governments Michael. We’re still small fish. We just haven’t made a big splash yet. Use codenames from now own. I’ll keep the camera trained on the Impala until you can get his facial recognition.” 

“Roger Fade. Archangel out.” Fade aimed his rifle at the car. All the vehicles finally stopped short of the funeral grounds. 

“Now step out of the car you bastard.” Fade kept his scope trained on Carlos. People started getting out of their cars, everyone unaware of the gunman in the trees and the criminal in the black car. ‘This’ll be fun,’ he thought. 

I stepped out of my car when we stopped by the funeral grounds. The guys in the black Cadillac hearse were working on getting the casket out of the car. I looked back at the black Impala behind me. I hadn’t seen anybody drive that car in Baytown and I didn’t know anyone else other than the people here that had a connection to my grandmother. ‘Weird,’ I thought. I turned around and looked at a tree that overlooked the cemetery. For some reason, I thought I saw something or someone in the tree. I was too far away too see it, so I shrugged it off and walked off to join the others. ‘Probably nothing.’ 

Fade kept his eye on Carlos for about five minutes before he finally got out of his car. ‘Finally.’ Carlos closed the door for his car and walked with the small group to the church. As soon as the last person went inside, the door closed. ‘Damnit.’ “Archangel, they’ve gone inside the church. I don’t have eyes on. Switching to thermal vision.” 

“Roger.” Fade switched the vision on his scope to thermal, now able to see all heat signatures in the building. 

“Now where the hell are you, Carlos?” 

After about 30 minutes of remembrance, the church doors finally opened, and the group walked towards the cemetery. Fade kept his scope trained on Carlos as soon as he entered it. Nothing bad had happened. Yet. But until Carlos tried something, Fade could do nothing but sit in the tree. 

When we finally got situated near the burial site, I sat down in one of the chairs they had for us. ‘Please let’s just get this over with,’ I thought. My entire family sat beside me, and that strange fella sat somewhere behind me. The preacher stood by the black casket that held my grandmother and began to speak. ‘Oh, spare me the God talk.’ I looked up at the tree and once again I thought I saw someone in it. ‘The hell?’ I rubbed my eyes and looked up again. I didn’t see anything that time. ‘I must be going senile.’ 

Fade took cover behind the back of the tree not visible to the group that was grieving. “Archangel, I’ve been seen. But I don’t think I’ve been compromised.” 

“Peek out and see if anyone is coming to investigate.” Fade peeked his head out to the right. Only Ellen was looking at the tree, but she quickly looked back at the speaking of the preacher. 

“It’s good. No movement from anyone.” Fade looked out left and kept his eye on Carlos. For 15 minutes no one except the preacher was moving. Then as the preacher stopped talking, Carlos reached for something in his shirt pocket. ‘What the fu-?’ Carlos pulled out a syringe. ‘Oh shit, he’s gonna sedate or poison her. Damn.’ “Archangel, he’s just pulled out a syringe from his pocket. If he makes a move I’m taking him out.” 

“Hold on Fade, wait a minute. Don’t do anything too hasty man. They’re about to bury the body.” 

“That’ll be his window Archangel. While everyone is distracted he’ll sedate her and take her hostage.” 

“Shit. This is crazy. Taking a hostage at a funeral.” Fade didn’t respond. The casket was finally lowered into the hole they had for it. ‘Make a move. Come on, I dare you.’ Everyone stood up and started to leave. Carlos stood up and walked towards Ellen. 

“He’s moving.” Just before he could get a shot off, Carlos looked up at the tree and spotted the glare of his scope. Frightened, he jumped into the crowd, knowing Fade wouldn’t shoot any civilians. He stood up and grabbed Ellen by the throat, holding the syringe to her neck. “Son of a bitch, he’s taken her. I can’t get a clear shot.” 

“You shoot me, I’ll kill her!” The others on the ground panicked. They all ran for their cars, scared to death. Carlos pulled out a gun and shot twice in the air. 

“Fade, can you get a shot?” 

“I can now, but it’s hard trying to find a spot. I’m not shooting if the shot will hit her.” Fade kept his scope trained on his head. As much as he wanted him dead, he needed him alive. ‘Fuck it.’ Before Carlos could jam the gun into her temple, Fade shot his hand, effectively disarming him. 

“Ah! Damnit!” Carlos yelled in pain. Fade jumped down from the tree and slung the rifle on his back. Ellen fell to the ground, her face full of fear. Fade reached down and grabbed Carlos’s collar and punched him in the face hard, knocking him out. 

“Archangel, I have Carlos in custody. I’m bringing him in for questioning.” 

“Okay. What about Sigourney?” 

“I’ll take her someplace safe.”

Ellen Sigourney Age: 18 Affiliation: None Bio: Born to a lower middle-class family, Ellen Sigourney grew up in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. She lived there until her family relocated to Baytown, Texas, and lived a pretty normal life, and is one of the smartest of her class.Her mother died when she was 12 and father walked out on her when she was 13, leaving her in the care of her grandmother for the last 5 years. She is also a survivor of the Baytown shooting event that happened in 2015 that killed over 30 people, including her friend John Kurt.


	3. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ellen Sigourney and her newfound savior escape from Baytown towards the hidden base of the mysterious Fade Coalition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys are having a nice Valentine's Day. I'll just be in the corner... reading Shoujo manga...

Chapter 2: Home  
May 25, 2017  
Baytown, Texas

‘Son of a bitch!’, I thought as the bullet struck the arm of the guy holding me at gun and syringe point. I fell to the ground, paralyzed in fear. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone climb down from the tree with a sniper slung over his back. He was wearing a mask so I couldn’t see his face. The masked figure grabbed the douchebag by the collar of his shirt and knocked him out with a swift punch. I started to back away in a crab-like motion. 

“Archangel, I have Carlos in custody,” the masked figure said. “I’m bringing him in for questioning.” I kept backing away slowly, still struck with fear so much I couldn’t do anything. He was clearly talking to someone over the radio. “I’ll take her someplace safe.” He got off his radio and looked at me, still crab walking on the ground. 

“Get up. It’s not safe here.” I just started at him, unable to move. He kneeled down and looked at me. “Look, we need to leave. The same guys that just tried to take you could come back. I need to get you someplace safe.” I looked at him and gulped. 

“O-okay…” He took my hand and helped me off the ground. “W-where are we going?” 

“Someplace the local crime can’t follow us.” He picked up the unconscious Carlos and carried him on his back. “Follow me.” We walked behind the church. “X, I’m behind the church. Need extraction.” 

“Roger, I’ll be there in 30.” The masked man took his rifle into his hands. I could hear something coming from the woods by the church. A truck appeared out of the corner of my eye and drove right for us. He stopped just short of us. 

“Get on in.” 

“Thanks for the extraction X. Take us to base.” 

“I heard that.” The masked man got into the back of the jeep that looked strangely a lot like the Warthog from Halo. John would probably faint if he saw it. 

“Get in the passenger side, Sigourney.” I got into the passenger seat, then I noticed the gun turret. ‘Why would they- You know what, never mind.’ The truck started moving away from the church, hugging the main road but not exactly driving on it either. 

“You might want to get some sleep,” the masked man said. “It’ll be a while until we get to a safe destination.” Out of nowhere, bullets pinged off the side of the truck. “What the hell?” He turned his turret around. We were being followed. “We got two trucks tailing us, X!” 

“Shit, I see them.” The truck veered to the left, giving the masked man on the gun a good shot at them. He fired in short controlled burst, and was able to flatten the tires of one of the trucks by the fifth burst. 

“We got one truck!” He kept shooting the other truck until finally it came to a halt, its engine battered too much to operate. “We’re clear.” X’s driving relaxed and the masked man kept his eyes on the surrounding area. 

“Holy shit,” I muttered. I put my head down in my lap, scared out of my normally fantastic wits. I felt a hand on my shoulder. 

“You okay?,” asked the masked man. 

“Not really.” 

“Look, get some rest. I’ll wake you when we make it to the safe house.” I nodded and his hand left my shoulder, and I immediately missed how it felt against me. I sat up and tried the best I could to go to sleep. 

About two hours later I woke up to being shaken by X. 

“Hey, wake up. We here.” 

“Huh? O-okay.” I yawned and rubbed my eyes, trying to wake myself up. I looked around and saw a decent sized house in the middle of a bunch of trees. “That’s the safe house? A little big to be one.” 

“Oh it’s more than that. Just wait and see.” I looked up and saw the masked man asleep by the turret, holding his rifle close to him. “Hey, wake him up, will ya?” I nodded and touched his shoulder slightly. He twitched and awoke a few seconds later. 

“We made it, X?” 

“Yes sir. Almost to the house.” 

“Good.” He looked at me, his dark mask shielding his facial features. “Feeling better Sigourney?” 

I nodded. “How do you know my name?” 

He sighed. “It’ll be better to explain when we get inside the house. You need to be brought to speed on a lot of things. But one thing is for sure. You are in danger.” He got back up on the turret. “X, radio Control, tell ‘em we made it.” 

“Yes sir.” X cut on the trucks radio. “Control, this is Theta 4. We are outside base and request permission to come in.” 

“Copy Theta 4, we’re opening the garage now. Welcome back home boys.” 

“Roger that.” I looked ahead and saw the garage door to the house open up, a pretty good sized area the truck could fit in. X drove into the garage and stopped when the truck was fully inside. The door closed behind us. 

“Freight elevator going down,” said a robotic voice. Suddenly, the floor of the garage was going down. I tensed up, very surprised. X noticed this and laughed. 

“Told you there was more to this place.” I held on to the side of the truck, hoping that the elevator didn’t fall. After a few seconds, I was able to see what was hidden under the elevator: an entire operational military base. There were tanks, trucks, ATV’s, and guns on almost every wall. As the elevator dropped lower, I could see about 40 to 50 men, all dressed in military uniforms I could only assume was from other countries. 

I looked up at the masked man. “Is this an underground army?” 

“Something like that.” The truck lurched forward a bit as the elevator stopped. “Finally home. X, get Carlos to the interrogation room.” The masked man and X, nodding, jumped out of the car. I unbuckled myself and got out. All the soldiers in the base looked up and ran towards the truck, getting into a straight line. 

“General on deck!” They stood at attention and saluted. The masked men stood up straight and saluted back. 

“At ease, men. Get back to work.” He took my hand. “Come with me. We need to talk.” 

Travis Sawyer aka Carlos 

Age: 33 

Affiliation: ISIS, numerous worldwide criminal gangs 

Bio: Carlos's father grew up in the crime wave following the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, and grew up with the influence of the radical Black Panther Party. Despite his (white) mother's attempts to stop the influence from getting to her son, his father educated him in the ways of anarchy and gave him the goal of overthrowing what he thought was a corrupt institution: the United States. He became a high ranking member of the Black Panther Party of Baltimore, long before the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Following 9/11, he left Baltimore to travel to Saudi Arabia, and aided Al-Qaeda in the landlock "War Against Terrorism" started by the U.S. After 2 years of fighting, he returned to the United States and helped out numerous gangs, including the Mexican mafia. When ISIS rose in 2012, he once again left the U.S. to aid in their struggle. He returned to the states a year later, but has made a vast empire of black market mercenaries and weapons. He was found to have been connected to the Baytown Shooting in 2015, but many in the U.S. government, particularly Democrats, ignore this evidence and stall any investigation trying to piece together why he was in Baytown on that day.


	4. Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ellen discovers the identity of her savior: The vigilante Fade. Fade also reveals his connection to her friend John Kurt and why she was attacked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, 3 chapters in one day, I'm on a roll. (But to be fair I already had this stuff typed up)

Chapter 3: Revelation   
May 25, 2017  
Unknown Location

The masked man took me to a room not far from the armory, or whatever it was I just came from. There was a chair in the center of the room, being rather empty. 

“Have a seat.” I sat down in the lonely chair, kinda freaking out but keeping my cool. “Do you know the guy that attacked you today?” 

“No, I don’t think so. Why?” 

“Because he should seem familiar to you. He was part of the group that shot up your school about two years ago. His name is Carlos Argon.” 

“What the- H-he shot up my school? Why are they after me now? Weren’t they looking for a guy called Fade?” 

“Yes they were. They ambushed the school looking for anyone and everyone who had a connection to Fade.” 

I looked at him sternly. “And I’m guessing you’re Fade?” 

“Very observant. Yes. I am Fade.” 

“You mother f-” I tried to jump out of the chair, but something grabbed my wrist and held me down. I looked behind me and saw my hands bound to the chair by handcuffs. They must’ve been automated. I struggled to break free. “You bastard! You let them kill us!” 

“You don’t understand the slightest bit of what transpired. On top of that, you don’t even know what I do for a goddamn living. So before you accuse me of trying to cause something like killing a bunch of high schooler's, why don’t you just ask me what the hell happened? Because I didn’t kill them. My friend was among those missing!” Even though I couldn’t see his facial expressions, I could tell he was full of rage. His fist were clenched as well. 

“… You knew John?”, I asked after a few moments. 

“Yes.” 

“I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t be. It’s all my goddamn fault in the first place.” He sat back down in his chair, his head hung low. 

“Can you tell me what happened?” 

“That was the entire point of me bringing you here. You need to know what happened. And I know how much John looked up to you, so I wanted to save you for his sake.” Fade looked down at the ground. “This is what happened.” 

September 25, 2015 (Two years ago)  
Baytown, Texas

John Kurt walked up to the school, feeling particularly tired out. ‘Son of a bitch,’ he thought. ‘School is a goddamn vampire.’ On top of being a normal high school student, he was also an informant for Fade. He had been working all night on an essay, and hacking into thousands of files in the U.S. and UN databases. Essentially, he was helping WikiLeaks expose the dirty deeds in the world. Fade handled strictly military missions. He was Fade’s second in command. For John it was grueling, but he could handle it. He just wanted at least a little bit of his time to be used playing video games. 

Suddenly, his burn phone started buzzing. ‘What the hell is going on?’ His burn phone was only for emergencies, ones that concerned the security of the group. He took it out of pocket and answered. “Hello?” 

There was a couple of coughs. “Chief, it’s Archangel. We just got some new intel.” Archangel coughed again. 

“You okay man?” 

“No. I’m sick, and we just got some intel that points to an attack on the school.” 

“You’ve gotta be shitting me.” Kurt started to panic. “W-who tipped us off? Who’s the one going to attack?” 

“Our informant Decker. It’s a Houston gang with significant ties to the Mexican mafia AND ISIS. Also there was a significant reference to Carlos.” 

“You mean the same Carlos we’ve been chasing for two weeks? What’s the motive?” 

“He must’ve found out about our operation somehow. We must have a mole, or something.” Archangel coughed again. “Look, you need to get out of there.” 

“Well, we gotta evacuate the school, call the cops or something.” 

“We tried, but the cops didn’t listen and the school thought it was a prank. Pencil pushing motherfuckers. Plus all of the guys are out on a mission, we have to do this ourselves.” 

“Man. I’m gonna try something.” He shut the phone and stuck it back in his pocket. John ran back to his truck and opened the driver side door, grabbing his Kimber 1911. ‘Gotta get everyone out of here before- Suddenly three shots rang out. “Oh shit.” There were screams met with gunfire, bodies hitting the floor. “NO!” John shut his truck and ran into the school, aiming his pistol forward. He followed the sound of gunshots, hoping to take the bastards down before they killed all the students. 

After a few moments of walking in the halls, he walked into the gymnasium, finding two gunman in all black clothing interrogating a group of 10 students. 

“Where is Fade?,” they asked. “Where is he?!” Most of the captured group were crying, fearing for their lives. John crouched and walked slowly towards the two gunman. One of the students spotted him and looked in his direction. John put a finger to his lips, indicating he needed him to be silent. A few seconds later, John shot one of the gunman in the knee cap. He fell to the ground, crying in pain. The other person came to aid his friend. 

“You okay man? What happened?” His answer came when Kurt put his pistol to the man’s temple. 

“I happened.” Kurt couldn’t see the gunman’s face, but he could tell the color from his face drained through his body language. The gunman put his hands up, shaking throughout every part of his body. He then preceded to knock the injured gunman out with a swift punch to the face. “Who are you? And do not push my buttons.” 

“I-I ain’t telling you nothing!” John put his pistol on the ground and grabbed his wrist, twisting it just enough to make it painful, but not enough to break it. 

“Tell me now! Or I break your fucking wrist. That’ll be one bone out of 216.” 

“Shit, I-I’m just a grunt for the Snake Eyes. We got a tip that Fade was messing with our drug ops, so we decided to take him out.” 

“How do you know he’s here? Pretty stupid to kill a bunch of kids for one man.” 

“Carlos told us. He was the one that organized it. But we weren’t gonna kill no kids. I have two. Please, don’t hurt me!” 

“If you’re lying, I’ll break the other one.” 

“The other whaaatt?!” Kurt twisted his wrist far enough to break it. The gunman yelled in pain before Kurt took his sidearm and smacked him across the face with it. He looked at the captured students. 

“Get out of here, go. Find somewhere safe.” John ran out of the gymnasium as the others ran out as well. As he walked out into the next hallway, he found a gruesome scene. Bodies and blood littered the floor, all over the floor. There was at least 40 of them. He nearly gagged at the smell of blood invading his nose. 

His burn phone rang again. “Shoot.” He let it ring for a few more seconds, then finally answered it. “Archangel?” 

“What happened?” 

“They came. Their killing a lot of people.” 

“Oh God. Come on man get out of there. If they catch you there is no telling what they’ll do to you.” 

“I’m not leaving yet. I have to make sure my friends are safe.” 

“With all due respect Chief, they are all probably dead. Hell, my friends might be dead in there right now. You need to leave, live to fight another day.” 

John stopped. “Archangel. Please listen. As long as one of my friends are alive, I will not let them die. What would you do right now if you were here?” 

Archangel sighed. “I would do what I could to save them.” 

“Exactly. Michael, in case they capture me, keep track of my burn phone. It’ll lead you straight to the assholes that have me.” 

“Okay. Why did you break call sign, John?” 

“Because I have a feeling I might not make it out of here. Good luck with the cause my friend.” John closed his phone and stuck it in his pocket. “Let’s get some, John,” he said to himself. Kurt walked out of the hallway towards the cafeteria. He hadn’t heard any gunshots for a couple of minutes, so he figured he would use the silence to sneak up on any of the gunman still there. Gripping his sidearm tightly, he walked silently through the cafeteria. After getting through the cafeteria, Kurt continued being stealthy, and looked around constantly to avoid being spotted by a straggler. ‘Where the hell are they?’ 

Suddenly, he heard police sirens outside the school. ‘Finally.’ John ran, hoping the gunman would be distracted by the sirens. As he got to the exit of the cafeteria, a gunman pushed the door open, hostages running into the large room. ‘Shit.’ John crouched and inched away from the door, hiding under one of the tables. The gunman hadn’t noticed him yet, still struggling to keep his hostages calm. 

“Carlos,” the gunman said into his radio. “The rest of the hostages are in the cafeteria. Everything else is dead.” 

“Roger, on my way,” a scrambled voice came back, surprisingly loud enough to hear. Another gunman came into the cafeteria through the same door the other came through. 

“I haven’t had any contact from Group 2 in about 10 minutes,” said the apparent female gunman. “Plus when I try to radio them I just get static.” 

“Those idiots probably forgot to turn on their radios again. Go check it out, I’ll stay with the hostages.” 

“Okay, got it.” The gunman walked towards the door John came in from. After she disappeared from sight, a group of three gunman came into the cafeteria. One of them wore no mask, just black body armor. He guessed that to be Carlos. 

“Is this all of them?,” he asked. 

“Most of them. Group 2 had a group of hostages. Makayla is checking on them now.” 

“Good. We might as well get some interrogation going.” He walked toward the hostages. “Listen up. As you might have guessed, we have killed many of your constituents. But this was all done to inquire your cooperation to help us find someone hiding amongst you.” He kneeled down in front of the girl nearest from him. John quickly recognized her. 

“Ellen? Oh shit…” Carlos looked her directly in the eyes, obviously too shell shocked to look away. 

“So. Tell me Miss. Where is Fade?” 

“W-who is Fade? I don’t know who he is.” Kurt crawled out from under the table, being very slow and careful with his movements. Footsteps rang out in the hall Kurt came from, most likely the other gunman sent to check on their other group. He guessed he only had a few more seconds before she got there. ‘Not a lot of time. Think damnit.’ 

“There is no need to keep any information from me. If you are keeping something from me, you will suffer the same fate as the rest of the students here. Death.” Carlos took his gun, cocked it and pushed it on her head. 

“Shit,” John whispered. The other gunman finally came in, not noticing him crawling from under the table and moving to her left. 

“Sir, Group 2 is down. I don’t know who or what, but both of them are unconscious.” 

“Damn. It’s not the cops. Something is here.” John took their momentary confusion to his advantage, jumping out of his cover and grabbing the gunman by the throat and wrapping his arm around it. She gasped, surprised at suddenly being chocked. John kept her in front of him, his gun jammed in her back. 

“Leave the kids alone. Or I do your friend here.” Carlos took his gun, leaving it on the ground and putting his hands up. The other gunman did the same. “Now let them go.” 

Sigourney looked up and saw her friend. “J-john?” 

“It’s okay guys. It’ll all be over soon.” He looked at the unmasked gunman “So I suspect you’re Carlos, huh?” 

“Very perceptive. How’d you guess?” 

“No mask. Plus I already know what you look like.” 

“Huh. So I suspect your Fade?” John pondered at it. He couldn’t give Fade away, but if there was a chance to keep the others from getting killed… 

“No. But I work for him.” 

“So I see. Not many people your size could take us on. So what are you? Tactician? Soldier? Drugbuster?” 

“I’m a few things.” The gunman he held squirmed. She was scared, he could tell by the way her heart was racing. 

“Well, you are technically outnumbered. Two on one.” 

“Yeah. But I have a human shield.” 

“We do too. But we have more than one.” Carlos then grabbed Ellen by her arm. She shrieked in fear. 

“Let her go, damn it.” 

“Then let our friend go, and turn yourself in.” John stared at Carlos. ‘Damnit’, he thought. “If I let her go and go with you, will you leave them be? They didn’t do anything to you.” 

Carlos smiled. “I give you my word they won’t be harmed any more than they already are.” 

“No John, don’t do it. Who knows if he’ll even keep his word?” John looked at Ellen, at her sad face, begging him not to give himself up. He gave a sigh of defeat. 

“Fine. Take me in.” He let go of the gunman he was holding hostage. She gasped for air, coughing a few times. 

“Makayla, bind his hands and take his weapon. He’s coming with us.” 

She nodded. “Okay sir.” Kurt kept his vision pointed as the ground, not watching as he was stripped of his gun and his hands tied together. “He’s bind sir.” 

“Good. You kept your end of the bargain, and I’ll keep mine.” Carlos let go of Ellie and holstered his gun. “This provides good opportunity. The cops won’t shoot a gunman armed with a hostage. But to be safe…” He grabbed two other hostages by their arms and threw them towards the other two gunman. “We’ll have more than one shield.” 

“No, that wasn’t part of the d-” John tried to protest, but was hit in the stomach by Carlos. He gasped in pain, struggling to breathe. “Fuck…” John took one last look at Ellen, then he closed in eyes, resigning to his fate. 

“Let’s go.” Carlos took John by the arm and dragged him out of the cafeteria. John kept his eyes shut as they took him away. Within moments, he was taken outside, used as a human shield, and finally shoved in the trunk of a car. He felt the car drive away from the godforsaken school, but never focused on where they were going. He just kept his eyes shut the whole time. 

News of 2017: Month of May 

"President Trump has announced a new order to help the Middle East in the struggle against ISIS. Despite having been pushed back in the summer through winter of last year, they have apparently rebounded and are taking back most of their lost territory. In this order, over 200 servicemen will be going in an advisory and militant capacity to help the struggling fighters against the Islamic Terrorist." 

"Newfound celebrity of communism, Dranic Duran, has come forward on multiple news outlets with claims of evidence against Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he says "confirms he is a threat to race relations." Despite having no evidence on claims of him being a racist, many in the Democratic Party still call him a racist, and this just brings in more unneeded press and is providing more of a distraction for politics other than actually focusing on the real problems right now."


	5. Interrigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Fade and Ellen help console each other, Fade turns his attention to Carlos. And he is not pleased.

Chapter 4  
May 25, 2017  
Fade Home Base

I kept perfect attention while Fade told me his take on the whole event at the school. He kept a calm voice they whole time, and a couple of times I swore I could hear his voice crack. It was like he was about to cry. After he finished, he released me of my handcuffs and let me go. I rubbed my wrist when the cuffs released. 

“Damn, those cuffs were tight.” I jumped out of the chair. 

“Sorry. We put that there just in case. Usually our experiences in this room were more… violent.” 

“I see… So what are we going to do?” 

“For now, I’m gonna do my job.” 

“Which is?” 

“Promote vigilantism on massive scales. That is our mission anyway. We stop evil forces from breeding in America, and occasionally other countries. We’ve been mainly focusing on keeping crime down in most of the country, along with sabotaging big government ideals.” 

“Like what?” I asked. 

“Unconstitutional surveillance. Military schemes, and trying as hard as possible to leak some crazy shit governments have been doing.” He opened the door to the cell. “You, aren’t really doing much of anything yet. You’re under our protection, and if Carlos’s faction tries to make another strike at you, we need to make absolutely sure they can’t find you.” 

“So I basically can’t do shit. Great.” I walked out of the cell behind him and shut the door rather loud. 

“Well I’m giving you two options here. You can stay here and wait for this to blow over. Or… You can help our organization.” 

I turned around and faced him. “So, it sounds like your giving me two options. Either sit here on my ass so someone won’t try to kill me, or train with you and join your “organization.”” 

He nodded. “That’s about right. Are you in?” I took a few moments to contemplate it. Either way, I’m going to be staying here for a while. But I guess while I’m staying here I’ll learn how to fight. Plus joining this organization could help me gain the trust of the others here. 

I gave an audible sigh. “I guess I’ll join you guys. Either way, it’s obvious I won’t be leaving this place for a long time.” 

“Good choice Ellen. Welcome to the Fade organization.” 

“Great to be here,” I said somewhat sarcastically. ‘So Day 1 here has progressed rather fast.’ “Shit.” 

“X will show you to your room. I have some unfinished business to attend to.” 

“Like what?” 

“A little bastard called Carlos.” 

Carlos sat in the interrogation room, bound to the chair by handcuffs. He struggled, but eventually gave up. ‘At least I’m at Fade’s home base. If I could find some way to memorize the layout…’ His thoughts were interrupted by the door to the room opening and closing. Fade stood before him, his face covered by his dark helmet. 

“Well well well. If it isn’t Dark Helmet himself.” 

“Spare me the jokes you child killing fucktard.” Fade punched him in the mouth. Carlos grunted in pain, suddenly tasting copper in his mouth. 

“For someone so intent on saving people, you sure know how to take your anger out on someone.” 

Carlos laughed. Fade clenched his fist and once again punched him in the face. Blood entered Carlos’ mouth. Carlos spit out the blood in his mouth but more continued to enter. He smiled, his teeth red. 

“Why did you attempt to take Ellen Sigourney?” 

“What does it look like? Tying up loose ends obviously. Considering John Kurt had already died, we had to do anything and everything to ensure nobody ever squealed about us being the true perpetrators.” 

“Yeah, well the entire world is going to know whether you like it or not. And considering we don’t answer to any one country, we have no major jurisdiction to live by the worlds rules. Geneva Convention. Out the window. We could torture you as we please. So you’re going to tell me all the information you have on ISIS, and the major mafias you work for.” 

Carlos chuckled again. “You aren’t going to get shit out of me. The people I work for teach me to ignore any discomfort I feel. Itchy nuts don’t even affect me.” He started laughing harder. Fade punched him again in anger. 

“Like I said, we have no moral jurisdiction to reign us in. We could torture you until you become a fucking vegetable, or until you can’t walk.” Carlos spit towards Fade, his blood splattering all over Fade’s helmet. Fade went to punch him again, but then noticed his bandaged hand, the hand he shot to disarm him earlier. He gripped his hand hard, causing Carlos to wince in pain. Carlos chuckled despite the pain. 

“Bet that hurt, doesn’t it?” Carlos laughed again, wincing in the process. 

“Heh.. Well played.” Fade let go of his hand. 

“Think long and hard about this. Because if you don’t tell me anything the next time I see you, you’ll be in a world of hell.” Fade turned and went to the door as Carlos laughed again. 

“You aren’t getting anything out of me. Even if you do, you won’t be alive long enough to use the information.” Fade opened the door. 

“Okay then. Looks like I’ll have to break out the chainsaw.” He turned back to him. “I’ll be back in two days. That’ll give you enough time to think about if you want your legs. Fade walked out of the room and closed the door, leaving Carlos in the room. Carlos sighed. “Shit.” 

Fade kicked the door to is room open. He knew Carlos would put up a fight. But he didn’t expect a good opportunity to be able to kidnap him. But he had him now. That wasn’t the reason he was frustrated. Carlos overstepped his bounds. Fade had known the day would come when he would come back to kill the rest of the witnesses, even though most of them left the town and went to other places. They might not have even found Ellen had her grandmother not died. This also meant for Fade that since he not only had the one link that would stop Carlos’s reign of terror, but also had the one man that had ties to almost every major criminal organization in the world. This put his team on the map. He had no doubt hackers would’ve picked up the signals he sent out. He growled. 

“Damnit….” He went to his desk and opened his laptop. He had at least someway to relax by just looking on YouTube. His favorite news source, The Daily Wire, always posted videos on YouTube when their podcast (The Ben Shapiro Show and The Andrew Klavan Show) aired on The Daily Wire, albeit only 20 minutes of the shows. And while he couldn’t put in a paid annual subscription (for obvious reasons and he was cheap) he still looked forward to watching them every week. He smiled as he clicked on the video, meanwhile wiping his helmet clean of blood so he could see clearly. By the time he finished cleaning it, he was graced by the voice of Ben Shapiro, by far one of the last, great hopes in the legal world.


End file.
